Month: July 2006

While only one in four Iranians believe that developing nuclear weapons should be their government’s most important long-term goal, more than half say that economic hardship should not deter the country from pursuing its nuclear program, according to a new survey [.pdf] released here Thursday. The survey, which was carried out by Zogby International on … Continue reading “Iran Poll Shows Strong Nationalism, Anti-US Sentiment”

DAMASCUS – Syrians are outraged over Israeli air strikes in Lebanon that have killed scores of civilians and closed down Beirut’s international airport. Early Thursday morning, Israeli air strikes targeted the new Rafiq al-Hariri international airport. Israeli naval vessels entered Lebanon’s territorial waters and blocked access to ports while its forces launched an offensive in … Continue reading “Lebanese Tremors Rock Syria”

The Israeli offensive against Iran – until now, purely polemical – morphed into military action the moment the IDF crossed the border into Lebanon and took on Hezbollah. As our regular readers know, this turn of events was predicted in this space two months ago: “War with Iran will probably not begin with a frontal … Continue reading “Israel Crosses the Line”

Five American soldiers have been charged in a horrendous rape and murder case in Iraq (and a sixth for not reporting it). In the United States, rape is now a public crime. Cases are regularly discussed and followed in the media; victims are far less often blamed; if you turn on a TV program like … Continue reading “Sexual Terrorism in Iraq”

The Peace of Illusions: American Grand Strategy From 1940 to the Present Christopher Layne Cornell University Press, 2006 290 pp. Other than those who work in the White House, with no sense of shame, or act as court intellectuals, heaping praise upon the Bush administration, everyone recognizes that current U.S. foreign policy is a disaster. … Continue reading “Readings in the Age of Empire”

Some critics of the security barrier that the Israeli government has been constructing in the West Bank and Gaza have compared it to the infamous Berlin Wall that separated the Soviet-occupied part (East Berlin) of the city from the one controlled by West Germany (West Berlin), and by extension, divided Europe between the Communist bloc … Continue reading “Israel’s Failed Strategy: The Writing Is on the Wall”

The sudden opening Wednesday by Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia of a second front in Israel’s ongoing campaign against Hamas militants in Gaza presents the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush with an escalating crisis that, until now, it has preferred to ignore. The immediate question it faces is whether to maintain its strong backing for … Continue reading “Bush Faces Major Choice Amid Israeli Escalation”

UNITED NATIONS – The 15-member Security Council, the only UN body wielding power to impose mandatory sanctions on the organization’s 192 member states, is unable to help contain two ongoing crises primarily because of threatened vetoes by China and the United States. The two draft resolutions currently before the Security Council – one to punish … Continue reading “US Gets a ‘Dose of Its Own Medicine’ From China”

Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld paid an unannounced visit to Baghdad today, after telling reporters the Iraqi government is not yet ready to determine the pace of U.S. troop reductions. “We haven’t gotten to that point,” he said. So much for Iraqi sovereignty. It’s perhaps no accident that Rumsfeld’s visit comes as the Iraqi Parliament … Continue reading “Iraqis Call for Timetable, America Cracks Down”

Iraq and Afghanistan have two new leaders, but the strategy of terrorism is the same that was so fanatically pursued by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. They are Egyptian-born Abu Ayyub al-Misri, who reportedly replaced Zarqawi in Iraq, and the second one is Mullah Dadullah Akhund, a one-legged guerrilla commander in southern Afghanistan [1]. He is determined … Continue reading “Terror’s New Faces”